"I was offered a lot of money for losing a Giro" - Eddy Merckx's revelation about the Giro d'Italia where he was disqualified for doping

The Giro d'Italia 2025 is in its last rest day. The Corsa Rosa will face its decisive week, in search of a winner to add to the list of historic winners of the grand tour. Right now, Isaac del Toro is the most likely to do so, and in the meanwhile sport legend Eddy Merckx has shared a story from his days back in the peloton.

The UAE rider would become the first Mexican in history to join the list of Giro winners, which is still led today by Eddy Merckx, along with Alfredo Binda and Fausto Coppi, with 5 victories.

Precisely, Merckx is the protagonist in this rest day of the Giro d'Italia. The man considered to be the greatest cyclist of all time recently gave an interview to Corriere della Serra, and made a shocking revelation about the 1969 edition of the Italian race.

That year, Merckx was expelled from the Giro (won by Felice Gimondi) after testing positive for fencamfamin. To this day, the Belgian legend continues to deny the doping case, which rumors speak of a possible mafia action orchestrated against him.

In the aforementioned interview he states precisely that, that everything was due to the fact that he refused a bribe where he would be given a lot of money if he allowed himself to lose that Giro d'Italia.

"I was offered a lot of money for losing a Giro, and Gimondi knew everything," Eddy Merckx began by revealing. "If I had accepted, maybe nothing would have come out positive for doping. But a Giro d'Italia is not for sale."

One of the bases on which Eddy Merckx's defense of his innocence is based is due to the fact that the Belgian had no need to resort to doping, because he already had victory almost in his hand:

"I was set up. I had practically won that Giro d'Italia. There was no point in doping me. It was a flat stage and I was leading," said Eddy Merckx on the subject.